Why does everything taste so good...

[dragonfrog]

...coming off the still, and then so day the next day?

I ran a batch of DWWG the other day, having read much of that thread - someone there was describing how they set aside a mere 1/2 cup of heads, keeps a good hearts cut, and then sets aside everthing under 50% or so as tails to run another time.

During the run, I kept the output in jars, maybe 300-400 mL per jar, until it tasted like tails, and then gathered it all in two large bottles. I had about 7 jars, not even counting the first one that I was writing off as definitely fores/heads. I was all excited - at last, a recipe that doesn't produce too much heads, with nice flavours coming across before all the tails-y, rotten cardboard nastiness. The holy grail - a nice drinking spirit out of a single run.

I left it all open to breathe, and then today I tasted from each jar, to make my cuts. The result -
heads,
heads,
maybe kind of alright,
tails,
bleargh,
how on earth did I ever think this one wouldn't be tails,
nasty nasty tails

I gave up, and just dumped it all together, labeled it "low wines", and maybe I'll be able to get a little something nice out of a spirit run once I've stripped a few more batches.

So, what's going on here? Do my standards just go up once I'm not having the fun of distilling? Does airing the distillate overnight let the magic evaporate, and reveal the nasty piece of work the spirits really are?

[blind drunk]

What's your set up? How big is the batch? If it's 5 gallons, then your jars are too big IMHO. Maybe you ran too fast and got all the wrong sorta smearing.

I usually air for a lot longer than one night. But usually there is a nice center, even if it's small.

[Ayay]

Goin too fast will draw up the tails right through into the heads. If it's a reflux then you cannot go slower than the reflux ratio because you will lose the reflux. If it's a pot then go as slow as you can bear!

Goin slow may waste time but the cuts will be more certain. Doing it right is better than doing it again, exceptin doing it right again

[dragonfrog]

Ah, I suppose I should clarify that.

I've got a 20L pot with a 4' high, 2" column on it, and a bok head (more or less - it's a ball valve so my reflux control is rough). In this case though I was running it without packing and wide open, so basically a pot still with a high swan's neck.

My heat source is a 1 kW electric element, which I did keep all the way on. My impression is a kW is pretty slow as these things go - it takes about 2 1/2 hours to bring a full charge to the boil.

So, by the sounds of it, smaller collection batches is what I need? Maybe there was a good hearts cut in there somewhere - half of what went into the last heads-y jar, and half of what went into the first tails-y jar....